The Pacific sand crab is tiny - a little over an inch long at most. But shorebirds love to eat them and constantly patrol the the tideline to find crabs buried in the sand.

NPS: Sand Crabs on Santa Rosa Island

Figure App.F.12.4.. A figure showing the trends in the density of sand crabs on Santa Rosa Island from 1994 to 2015.

Figure App.F.12.4.. A figure showing the trends in the density of sand crabs on Santa Rosa Island from 1994 to 2015.

Click for Details Mean density of sand crabs Emerita analoga from surveys of eight beaches on Santa Rosa Island from 1994–2015. Curved blue line represents the statistically smoothed mean. Figure: Channel Islands National Park